


Intersections

by LtLJ



Category: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Interspecies Cooperation, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 14:17:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4482455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LtLJ/pseuds/LtLJ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John didn't remember the crash.  He knew he lay sprawled on the jumper's deck, that every part of his body hurt, and that he could hear the others shouting. Teyla, Rodney, Dr. Simpson.  Memory flooded back abruptly and he managed to open his eyes.  No, it wasn't a nightmare.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intersections

John didn't remember the crash. He knew he lay sprawled on the jumper's deck, that every part of his body hurt, and that he could hear the others shouting. Teyla, Rodney, Dr. Simpson. Memory flooded back abruptly and he managed to open his eyes. No, it wasn't a nightmare.

A wraith stood over him. It was looking down the length of the jumper's compartment, saying, "Tell me where we are, or watch me feed on him!"

The wraith had one foot on his chest, already cutting off most of his oxygen. John knew what being fed on by a Wraith felt like, and he knew it hadn't happened yet. Forcing himself past that moment of terror, he gasped, "You said you wanted us to take you to this gate. If it's not the right one, that sounds like your problem."

The wraith looked down at him and snarled, "The address I gave him was for an orbital gate. This is a planet. Our deal was clear."

The deal had been that the wraith just wanted them to take it and its drone back to its hive, and if they complied it would let them go. This was obviously bullshit. Wraith fed on their human cattle; as far as it was concerned, sucking out their lives and leaving them as desiccated husks was a matter of when and not if. 

"Our power's dropping!" Rodney shouted from the cockpit, furious and desperate and frightened. "We don't have enough power to lift off! You said this was an orbital gate, it's not my fault!"

Teyla added, "You may kill all of us, and you may stay on this planet until you rot."

John managed to lift his head enough to see Teyla flattened back against the jumper's hatch, her face a grimace of fury. One cheek was bruised and swelling, blood ran from a cut in her temple. He remembered the wraith throwing him across the jumper, but not the rest of the fight.

The others, Zelenka, Kusanagi, and Simpson were backed into a corner by the drone. Radek looked terrified, and Miko and Simpson looked both terrified and cagey. He knew they would try something if they thought they saw an opportunity. He knew that could get them killed. In a way they were lucky this had happened with three scientists who were experienced at being trapped and menaced by wraith. They were terrified, but they weren't panicking.

At least Ronon was missing the fun. This had been meant to be a routine data collection mission, so Ronon had gone with Lorne on a trading trip. _He's going to be pissed when we don't come back,_ John thought. Pissed and upset and hopefully he wouldn't end up leaving Atlantis to search for them on his own. John reminded himself to be optimistic. They weren't dead yet, it was just...really likely.

From the direction of the cockpit, Rodney shouted wildly, "I don't know where we are! How should I know where we are! You did something! Throwing things around here, you've broken the DHD!"

"He's right," Simpson said, her voice a frightened rasp. "The DHD can detect it when a wraith is aboard the jumper--"

The wraith snarled at her. "You're lying!"

"It's a modification we have made--" Miko said desperately. John saw the instant she realized her mistake, but he knew the wraith wouldn't be able to read a human expression that accurately. She added, "It is a permanent adjustment to the DHD! We don't have the crystals or tools here to fix it."

"Of course not," Teyla said. She glared at the Wraith, cold and furious. "Having such things aboard would be a security breach our people would never permit."

"What they said," Radek managed.

The wraith growled in baffled fury. "Find out where we are!"

"I can't!" Rodney sounded on the edge of losing it. "There's only one of us who can and you're standing on him!"

The wraith took his foot off John's chest and dragged him upright. It shook him. "Is this true?" 

Step one was to keep anybody from being fed on, and step two was to get the wraith and the drone out of the jumper. John had zero chance of doing either while dead or pinned to the floor. This would at least give him some more options. He croaked, "Sure."

It dragged him forward past the others into the cockpit and threw him down into the pilot's chair. John banged his elbow on the console and his arm went numb. The console blinked, the ATA reacting to his gene, and the HUD popped up a couple of diagnostic screens. John's head was aching too badly to make out the Ancient numerical system at the moment. He pressed the heel of his hand to his temple and felt blood in his hair. Rodney was crammed into the back corner, as far away from the wraith as he could get. He was pale, terrified, but unhurt except for a few bruises. _Right_ , John thought. Then he looked out the viewport and saw why the wraith was so pissed off.

The jumper was perched on the edge of a huge stone platform, a heavy jungle rising around it. Trees with trunks wider than skyscrapers loomed over them, and the light was dim and green. They had a view down into a partially cleared space where a cage-like white structure stretched up, a little like-- _A rib cage,_ John thought, floored. It was a rib cage, like something several times the size of a Blue Whale had fallen down and died there.

And about thirty feet in front of them was a round stone marker, pocked and chipped from age, with an Ancient symbol carved on it. 

The heads-up holo display was recording movement everywhere, mostly small lifesigns. The sensor display from behind the jumper showed the stargate but no DHD. Which meant either something had happened to it, or this was not a planet where foot traffic through the gate was encouraged or advisable; only jumpers and other vehicles with onboard DHDs would be able to make the return trip. There was a scar of disturbed moss and chipped stone across the platform where the jumper had banged into it and skidded.

The wraith had wanted them to take it to an orbital gate address that John figured was where its hiveship would be waiting. John gathered that this wasn't it. The Wraith demanded, again, "Where are we?"

John touched the console and felt the reassuring flutter of the jumper's mental interface. Power was dropping due to the damage from the blast that had caused the first crash and allowed Don the wraith and his drone Wally to board. John bit his lip. It gave them an excuse to stall, at least. "Something happened when we came through the gate. The power's dropping. We can fix it but we'll need tools. The metal case strapped to the bulkhead on the left side. Or that's where it used to be, before you threw all our stuff out of the hatch."

Don grabbed John by the hair and jerked his head back. "If this is a trick, you will die screaming."

That was going to happen anyway. Don and Wally had been trapped on a planet with an orbital gate. They fed on a whole village's worth of people, including the kids, waiting for rescue, and had hid the bodies so that they could keep luring travelers in from other villages. Some interference from a nearby Ancient site had concealed their presence from the jumper's sensors, which was why John and the others were in this situation. John just said, "It's not a trick."

Don stamped out of the cockpit, growled at Wally, and started rummaging in the carry-all's rack.

John twisted around to watch Don, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in his ribs. He whispered, "Before Don comes back, tell me what you did to the DHD."

Rodney's throat worked for a moment before he could answer, "I didn't do anything. There was a power surge when I entered the address." He dropped into the starboard jump seat, trembling from reaction. John didn't think he had been unconscious for more than five minutes, but it must have been a fraught five minutes. Rodney continued, "The readings are showing that there was an anomaly in the wormhole, maybe a dimensional shift." He added accusingly, "Did you do something?"

John had been on the deck at that point, stunned after he and Teyla had lost the fight with Don. Wally the drone had thrown all their weapons and half their supplies out the hatch. Don had been threatening Rodney to make him take the jumper through the gate. Through the jumper's ATA, John had ordered it not to cooperate. Maybe with two conflicting sets of instructions, one through the DHD and one directly from someone with an Ancient gene, the jumper had compromised. That was terrifying. "Uh, maybe."

Rodney groaned. "Well, that's just wonderful. Not only are we going to die, there's no chance the others will even find our bodies. And I hate it when you name the Wraith. It makes you sound like a serial killer."

John had picked the name because the Don he had known in college was an asshole too. Wraith Don was making the scientists point out the right toolkit and they were stalling helpfully, dithering over what sort of problem the DHD might have. John caught Teyla's gaze. She lifted her brows and he nodded; yes, they were going to have to take Don out, somehow. Even if it killed both of them. He asked Rodney, "Does that marker say what I think it does?"

"If you think it's the Ancient symbol for extreme danger, then yes. Linguistics thought it meant 'hazardous waste' at first but as usual it seems to have a broader meaning--" Rodney stopped abruptly, staring out the viewport. "Oh. Okay, uh. This is different."

John turned to look.

There was a guy crouched on the jumper's nose, just on the other side of the viewport. John just stared, thinking he was hallucinating. The jumper's sensors were reading the life sign, but the proximity alarm didn't sound, probably because the ATA knew John could see what it wanted to alert him about.

His hair was gray, and looked like he had cut it with a dull knife. His skin color wasn't a trick of the light, it really was a gray, with an almost metallic glint in the reflection from the cockpit lights. His clothes were gray too, a battered shirt and pants of some kind of light material. He was wearing a tooled leather belt but his feet were bare. His clothes were dirty, there was mud and moss stains on the long-fingered hand that was pressed to the jumper's port. One eye was marked with a white scar, the other was startlingly blue. 

He looked from John to Rodney and back, with a bemused expression, like it was just as odd for him to see them as it was for him to be somehow perched on the smooth metal of the jumper. 

"Who's that?" Rodney gasped. "What-- What--"

John's first thought was that nobody else needed to get their life sucked out because he had been stupid enough to let his team get caught by a wraith. He stretched forward, flattened his palm against the port. The guy looked down at him, gray brows quirked quizzically. John mouthed the words, "Run, get away. There's a wraith in here."

"I don't think he understands." Rodney pointed emphatically back toward the compartment. "It's a wraith! A wraith!"

Don chose that moment to slam in through the cockpit hatch. It froze when it saw the guy.

The guy saw Don, and his expression changed. The one good eye narrowed with sudden predatory intensity. John was beginning to notice more, that even crouched on the jumper's nose the guy's proportions didn't look right. He was too long in the torso, in the legs. His bones were oddly long. He thought, _This is not..._

"Who is that?" Don demanded, like that was a rational question.

"How the hell should I know?" John said, and got slapped into the side of the console.

A thump from the viewport made Don turn. The guy was flattened against it, was just drawing back. 

Rodney choked and said, "He tried to come through. The port. He tried to come through the port. That's not a--" He cut himself off.

As Don turned, the guy swayed to follow the movement. Like a cat, like a cobra, like something terribly, elementally dangerous that had sighted prey and couldn't think about anything else.

 _Human,_ John finished Rodney's sentence. _That's not a human._ "Yeah." He wet his lips. "He's a friend of ours. That's why I brought us here. He can fix the DHD." He couldn't believe Don couldn't see it. 

Don locked gazes with the man, or whatever it was, on the other side of the port. The guy made a gesture, a little movement with his free hand. _Come out, come get me._

Don, because it was a wraith and couldn't believe that anything that even looked superficially human would have a chance against it, snarled, "Open the hatch."

"Okey dokey," John said, and hit the release.

He felt a strong breath of cool damp air as the hatch unsealed. Don looked back toward it and the guy flowed soundlessly up off the viewport and out of sight onto the topside. Rodney made a startled noise.

Don grabbed John's arm, dragged him out of the chair and back into the main compartment. He threw John down on the bench and Wally stepped back to cover him as well as the others. Teyla was watching John with her brows lifted, her "what the hell are you doing?" expression. John shrugged a little. He had no idea how this was going to play out, though he had hopes.

The hatch slid open, the ramp dropping slowly to rest on the stone platform. The air was damp and cool and filled with oddly sweet scents, as if the whole jungle was full of flowers. The sound of weird bird calls and insect buzzing filled the air. John took a breath, suddenly realizing that the life support had cut out a few minutes ago and the jumper's air had been growing stale. Rodney, now standing in the cockpit hatch, sneezed. They could see the stargate from here, the metal crusted with windblown dirt and a little crop of ferns, and there was no sign a DHD had ever been installed on the cracked moldy stone of the platform. Don took a step toward open ramp, then another, then stopped.

John really hoped Don didn't suddenly grow some common sense. "What, are you scared?"

Don made a noise that was probably a laugh. "This is obviously a trick. But if there are humans here I will return with my hiveship and we will have a new feeding ground."

The proximity alarm went off and everyone flinched. John sent a mental command to the ATA to stop, for god's sake, do you want to get us killed? and it cut off immediately. 

A screen popped up in the HUD, helpfully angled so John could see it through the cockpit hatch. His eyes narrowed. _Huh._ The sensors were now reading a single large life sign directly atop the hull. _That can't be right,_ John thought. The interface assured him that it was. Rodney looked back at the console and drew breath to say something, caught John's glare, and clamped his jaw shut.

Then John heard a faint knock from directly overhead. Don didn't seem to notice but everyone else, including Wally, looked up. Radek muttered something fervent in Czech. John exchanged another look with Teyla. She clearly didn't think this was a good idea, but John still felt anything they did to get rid of Don and Wally was a potential win, and they could worry about surviving it later.

Don turned away from the hatch. "This is--"

And the guy dropped down onto the ramp. Don whirled around. There were startled gasps from the scientists. Teyla drew breath to shout a warning to him, then froze. She threw a worried look at John and he shrugged again. Teyla had seen it too. It was only Don, who survived by feeding on human life force, who couldn't seem to twig to the fact that this was not a human. John flicked a look at the console and saw the large life sign on the hull had now disappeared, but there was a confusing reading coming from the man on the ramp, as if the jumper couldn't decide how large he was. _Oh, that...could be a problem._

Oblivious Don said, "Brave and foolish. It will make your life more sweet to taste."

John wasn't keen on aliens, having mostly encountered only the ones who kept humans like cattle, but he knew whose side he was on here. He tried to catch the guy's gaze, and tapped his chest, pointed at Don and shook his head, trying to get across _Don't let him touch your chest._ The scientists and Teyla all made the gesture too.

The guy didn't react but John was certain he had seen them. He was watching Don with an expression that was pure, distilled, predatory intensity. John would have compared it to a tiger's expression, but there was so much intelligent calculation in it. It wasn't like anything he had seen before. 

Don, who maybe had a little sense of self-preservation, gestured to Wally. "Stun him."

Wally lifted the stunner, and the guy turned, stepped off the ramp, and disappeared around the side of the jumper. He moved casually, but just fast enough to be gone before Wally got the weapon aimed.

Don snarled and said, "Go after him!"

John let out his breath in relief. _Bye, Wally. It's been real_.

Wally headed for the ramp, Don looked at John to sneer something triumphant, and John missed the moment. He heard a startled curse from Radek, and looked in time to see Miko elbow Radek in the gut to cut off anything else he had been about to say. Miko and Simpson were staring wide-eyed at the open hatch, and Simpson had her hand pressed to her mouth, as if to stifle a yell. Teyla was turning to look, but her attention had been on John and Don and she had missed it too.

Whatever happened, Wally was just gone.

Don looked, and lost it. He lifted his stunner and shot Radek and Simpson before John could move. As they were falling, Miko slung one of the packs out of the carry-all at Don's face. He shot her next, but the instant of distraction gave John time to jump him. 

John managed to get his arm around Don's throat. Don moved too fast, and John missed the finger-stab at his eyes. Don threw him off across the compartment and John landed on the bench. He didn't see what Teyla did but suddenly Don was on the deck and Teyla was trying to snap his neck. John lunged to help her and got the stunner upside the head. The blow knocked him back to the deck, then Rodney flung himself out of the cockpit, yelling wildly, and got stunned in the chest. Don flung Teyla off and slammed her into the deck, just as John tackled him. Don threw him into the bulkhead, and John's vision went black for an instant.

When it came back his head was ringing. He looked for Teyla and saw her sprawled at the foot of the bench seat. He tried to push himself up and but the sudden stabbing pain in his left arm and shoulder sent him staggering. Don grabbed his arm and dragged him up and his left knee gave out. Don hauled him to the edge of the ramp and flung him out.

John hit the stone. He tried to roll to his feet and all he did was roll and sprawl on his face. The impact point on his shoulder sent a spike of pain through his back and he managed to drag one leg forward enough to push himself up on his elbows. He choked and managed to take a breath. If the four of them had managed to coordinate that attack better, it might have worked, but Don had had a long time with nothing to do but feed on people, and he was one of the strongest frigging wraith John had ever tried to kill. John lifted his head, figuring it was a good try, but this was it.

The first thing he realized was that there were pieces of drone armor scattered over the platform. The next thing he realized was that it wasn't pieces of armor, it was pieces of good old Wally.

Then he saw the alien guy was standing on top of the jumper. Then the alien guy changed.

There was suddenly a weird dark cloud, and out of it formed a huge dark shape, and it moved so fast all he could see were pieces of it. Dark spikes, the curve of something that might be a wing, a flash of dark razor-sharp claws.

Don stood on the top of the ramp staring hungrily at John and didn't see the claws that reached for him until it was far too late. The screech of rage shading into terror and pain was very gratifying. 

John meant to leap up and run into the jumper and close the hatch. Instead he slumped over forward and felt the gritty cool stone against his cheek, then nothing.

***

John was having that dream where he had been cocooned against the wall of a hive ship and couldn't move. He could hear familiar voices, someone groaning, and the footsteps of a wraith approaching. He was frantically trying to move a hand, a finger, anything-- He snapped awake with a gasp.

He blinked up at the familiar ceiling of the jumper, trying to remember what had happened. The only thing he could hear was breathing, and adenoidal snoring coming from Rodney or Radek or maybe both of them in chorus. The side of his head hurt, his back hurt, his left arm didn't seem to want to move. He lifted his working hand to his head and realized his hair was sticky with blood, a lot more than there had been earlier. He managed to roll to his side, and lever himself up a little. 

He was lying on the floor of the jumper, and someone had shoved his torn tac vest under his head. Teyla lay next to him, curled on her side, unconscious but breathing easily, and Rodney was stretched out just past her. John looked around for the others and winced as his neck and shoulder protested the movement. Miko, Simpson, and Radek had been stretched out near the cockpit hatch, and they all breathed deeply in sleep, like people recovering from being stunned.

 _Stunned,_ John thought. _Don, Wally. Right._ Everyone was alive, and John let his breath out in relief. Now he just had to keep them that way.

The hatchway was still open to a view of the platform and the jungle but the light was dimmer. The sun was setting somewhere past the heavy tree canopy. Squinting, John peered at the platform. There was something lying on the stained stone... _Yeah, that's Wally's head._ He hadn't dreamed that part, at least. He said, "Teyla, you okay?" His voice was a dry pained rasp.

Beside him, Teyla groaned and reached for her head. John pushed himself upright with a wince. "Teyla, wake up." He didn't want to shake her, considering the fact that they both had head injuries.

She opened her eyes a slit, frowning at him, then her eyes widened as full consciousness hit. She started to sit up and John said, "Careful, you're hurt."

Teyla pressed a hand to her ribs, grimacing. "Yes, I am aware of that," she gasped. "The others?"

John tried to stand but the bad knee still didn't want to cooperate. He settled for half-crawling to the lip of the hatch. "Sleeping off the stun." The jumper's emergency lights were on, but there was no response from the ATA no matter how hard he begged it. The ramp wouldn't close.

"The wraith?" Teyla asked, trying to push herself upright. 

"Torn to pieces. Literally." John leaned out, trying to see if the guy, or dragon, or dragon-guy, was still out there. 

"I am sorry I missed it." Teyla gave up on trying to stand and crawled to the bench. "I have encountered many wraith, but that one..."

"Yeah, he was a peach," John agreed. He didn't see any movement, except the faint breeze moving through the fronds and brush. 

"Someone... Someone has tried to help us," Teyla said, looking around at the others. "I know they did not fall in those positions."

"Don threw me out of the jumper after Wally. Then that guy-- something got him. I don't know what happened after that, but somebody carried me back inside." John reached a strap hanging down from the catch-all and hauled himself sort of upright.

"Don and-- Oh." Teyla shoved the hair out of her eyes. "I dislike it when you name them," she said grimly.

"I've got to get the stunners." They were the only weapons dead moron Don hadn't thrown out of the ship.

"Wait, I will go with you." Teyla rolled to her knees, wincing, and had to grab the bench for support.

"No, stay here." Somebody had to take care of the others if this turned out to be the last dumb thing John did. 

Teyla gritted her teeth. "You do not know that that...person will not kill you as well."

"It's not like he can't come in here and do it," John pointed out.

Teyla admitted reluctantly, "That is true."

John limped down the ramp and out across the platform, feeling terribly exposed. He found a stunner next to what was left of Don's spinal column and Wally's head, but he didn't see the other one. He leaned down to pick it up, and his left leg went out. He hit the platform, and had to just crouch there for a moment. He got his breath back, stretched to pick up the stunner, and felt someone standing over him. He looked up. "Uh, hi."

The guy reached down past him and picked up the stunner, then sat on his heels to get eye level with John. 

There wasn't much John could do except sit here and bleed quietly. He reminded himself it had been his idea to open the hatch with the power draining and feed the wraith to the weird scary alien guy. But even if this guy killed him, he was still glad Don had bought the farm in such a painful and ironic way. 

Then the guy handed him the stunner.

John took it. "Thanks."

The guy pushed soundlessly to his feet and strolled off along the side of the jumper.

John managed to stand and limp back inside. He sat down heavily on the bench to give his heart time to stop pounding. "Okay, that went well."

"Better than I expected." Teyla stared out the hatch, worried and uncertain. The guy was stretching and yawning like someone who had just woken up from a nap. "He is obviously alien."

"When he killed Don, I saw him change...bodies. He looked like a person, and then he looked like--" John didn't want to say the word "dragon." And it hadn't really looked like a dragon. He wasn't sure what it had looked like. There had been a tail, though, and a lot of spikes and claws. "And then he ripped Don apart."

Teyla stared at him for a full minute. Then she said, "Please stop calling him Don." She touched her head, winced, and rubbed the blood off on her jacket. He thought she was going to say it was his obvious head injury talking, but she said, "Why would such a creature bother to look human? Or almost human?"

"It fooled Don." John almost shrugged, but a stab of pain from his shoulder reminded him not to. "If it could fool a wraith, it must fool other predators." Though he found it hard to believe that they weren't looking at an apex predator, the apex predator of this area, if not the whole planet. If it was a defense mechanism, he didn't want to see what it was defending itself from.

"But he did not harm us. At least so far." Teyla looked at the others, peacefully sleeping. "He tried to help us."

John had noticed that the guy had made sure they weren't lying in painful positions, but now he realized everybody had something tucked under their heads. Mostly the few field packs that were left and the medical kit. _Medical kit._ John had thought Don had thrown it out with their weapons, but it must have fallen under the bench instead. "Teyla, the new stunner counteragent Beckett came up with. There should be some in the medical kit, right? They were supposed to add it to the list of supplies. Because the kit's under Radek's head."

"If they did not, I will be very upset with Supply Sergeant Rodriguez," Teyla said, and started crawling toward Radek.

***

They were missing some of the tools they needed, but Rodney, Radek, Miko, and Simpson had fixed jumpers with less under worse conditions, and within two hours, the power level was climbing, the lights were on, and Miko and Simpson were finishing up the diagnostics while Radek moved the crystals around in the life support matrix and Rodney got the rest of the systems working.

John and Teyla sat on the lip of the hatch with the stunner, just in case, and mostly because getting up was more painful than staying where they were. They had patched each other up with the medical kit but hadn't taken any painkillers beyond some aspirin. They needed to stay alert. The daylight was gradually fading into darkness, and John spent the time fantasizing about the emergency medical evac he was going to order for both of them as soon as the jumper hit Atlantis' landing bay.

The others had been discussing what had happened. "A dark hand with claws the size of Volkswagen," Radek said, waving tools around. "I saw it, with my own eyes! Was very dramatic."

"He's exaggerating, right?" Rodney said to John. He turned back to Radek and said slowly, with pointed emphasis, "You have a head injury. Go back to work."

"Not a Volkswagen," Simpson said. She shook the hair out of her eyes and popped open the next maintenance panel. "More like a Yamaha." 

"The motorcycle or the jet ski?" John asked her.

Miko leaned in through the cockpit hatch. "The jet ski, I think. It wasn't as big as a motorcycle."

Rodney shouted, "No one cares!" and threatened to throw things if they didn't stop talking about it. This was how Rodney generally dealt with being terrified for his life and thinking his friends were about to be horribly murdered in front of him, so no one stopped talking about it.

John and Teyla discussed it but decided closing the hatch might be read as an unfriendly gesture, so they had left it open. The guy had made no effort to come in or get near the ramp since they had woken, though they knew he was still out there. They saw him pacing along the edge of the platform occasionally. And once something large and furry with tentacles had started to come out of the shadows at the edge of the platform, saw him, and retreated hurriedly. So it was probably a good thing he had decided to stick around, considering that this was a place where there might be megafauna big enough to drag the jumper off the platform.

Finally Rodney stamped across the compartment and said, "We're ready to go. Miko is going to fly the jumper because my nerves are shot, but I want you to dial out, in case your manipulation of the interface did something permanent." He held out a hand for Teyla. "We're still reading the anomaly from the stargate, and we should be able to go back just the way we came, but I want to match the conditions as closely as possible. Without the screaming."

Teyla slowly hauled herself upright. "Do we know what gate address brought us here?"

Rodney carefully guided her to the bench. "No, the system didn't record it. Which frankly I'm torn about because we have one clear sign of Ancient presence, the stargate, but we also have one clear sign, the warning marker, that they took one look at this place and ran like hell."

The guy must have realized they were leaving, because he had wandered over to stand just within range of the light from the hatchway.

John let Rodney help him upright, then he caught hold of the strap and leaned out to say, "Hey, we're leaving now. Thanks for the help. You don't want to join a multi-national scientific expedition and kill a whole bunch of wraith for us, do you?"

Rodney snapped, "That's not funny!" He waved at the guy. "Bye, we're leaving, bye!"

The guy just regarded them with what John thought was clearly amusement, lifted one hand in farewell, and walked away.

They closed the ramp and Rodney and Radek helped John up to the cockpit to dial the address for Miko. The gate came to life and the wormhole formed. As the jumper lifted up, turned, and slid through the gate, the HUD recorded a large life sign moving away through the jungle.

**end**


End file.
